The Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is a member of the finch family, Fringillidae that has their bill crossed at the tip, enabling them to extract seeds from conifer cones.  With variations, males tend to be red or orange, while females are yellowish or greenish.  Breeding in the spruce forests of North America and Eurasia, they sometimes irrupt much further south when crops are low.  Matthew Paris wrote “In 1254, in the fruit season, certain wonderful birds, which had never before been seen in England, appeared, chiefly in the orchards. They were a little bigger than Larks, and eat the pippins of the apples, but no other part of them… They had the parts of the beak crossed, by which they divided the apples as with a forceps or knife. “